A-SET Training and Research Institute-India’s first and only institute to start training in the field of humanoid robots did a robot workshop and robot show at Birla Institute of Technology (BIT) Mesra technical fest Pantheon 2013 on Saturday.
For most people, a dancing robot is something they associate with science fantasy. Its unreal, an object from the future. But for 22-year-old Diwakar Vaish, Head robotics & Research at A-SET Training and Research Institutes it is just the starting of the story. He has built a fully programmed robot that not only walks like a human but also does bhangra and play football. The robots are being developed at a research institution in Delhi’s Karol Bagh, which has already developed another land surveillance robot and a mind sensing robot that can read the human mind.
Diwakar has coordinated his robot with a device that reads mind and can sense what a person is thinking. He described, “lets say a person is thirsty, the robot will automatically get to know that the person is thirsty and will get a glass of water for that person who is wearing that mind sensing device” He said it is the future of robotics and every thing in this world can be controlled by this technology.
He also gave a guest lecture at BIT on the same topic. The students found this lecture very interesting and informative. While giving the lecture over mind controlled robots, he came up with examples to explain how this robot, which is in the research stage, could function. He has been working in robotics field extensively and he wants to spread the knowledge of robotics to each and every student in India.
“It is equipped with a mind sensing device which can sense brain waves and know what the person wearing the device on his head wants to do next,” said Diwakar. He added, “So, if you are thirsty, it will serve you a glass of water and if it is hot, it can turn on the air-conditioner and set it at the temperature you would want it to be.
He has also recently made an Unmanned Ground Vehicle named Versatile. This robot is one of its kind as it can change its own shape according to the situations. For example when it has to go over rough terrain then it can increase its height, when it has to hide it can decrease its height by three times when it has to go in tight spaces then it can also squeeze itself and when it gets stuck then it can simply walk off like a spider robot.
He added that our aim is to train young students in the field of robotics so that they can make robots better than these and lecture at IIT is a step ahead in this direction. Recently similar workshops were conducted at IIT Roorkee, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Kanpur, IIT BHU, IIT Guwahati and VIT Vellore.